Forget Sinema, the fight for $15 an hour must go local
The battle for the new minimum wage must turn to cities like Phoenix, which unlike Sen. Kyrsten Sinema might have the guts to boost contractors’ pay.
When senators like Kyrsten Sinema gave a federal $15-an-hour minimum wage a thumbs down, President Biden had no choice but to do the next best thing.
The president this week signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay employees beginning in January at least $15 an hour – up from the current $10.95. It’ll also phase out the federal tipped minimum wage by 2024.
Under Biden’s executive order, an estimated 390,000 workers will directly benefit, which about half are women and the rest are Black or Hispanic, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The move isn’t ideal, given that it only benefits workers whose jobs are tied to federal contracts and that future presidents can change it on a whim.
But what was Biden to do? He has zero chance to push through legislation in a 5050 Senate where even fellow Democrats like Sinema and Joe Manchin are more concerned about cementing personal power than doing what most Americans want.
We can only hope she and others will come to their senses and listen to the majority or 62% of U.S. adults who favor the $15-an-hour minimum wage hike, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
Sinema is reportedly teaming up with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah to draft some sort of minimum wage hike but,
City leaders should follow Biden’s lead and require $15 per hour for city contractors.
rest assured, it won’t be $15. Manchin, meanwhile, is fixated with $11.
Biden will not give up on the $15 hike from the current rate of $7.25 per hour for all workers, not just those on federal contracts. But he won’t get anywhere with obstructionists like Sinema, who’s clearly more concerned with making fashion statements than lifting millions of Americans out of poverty.
The fight for $15 must now turn local, where at least some leaders might have the guts to do the next best thing like Biden did.
Arizona and 28 other states have minimum wages above the federal $7.25 but only a few have raised it to $15, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Arizona, the current hourly rate is $12.15, thanks to the voter-approved Proposition 206, but there is no chance of increasing it to $15 statewide with a Republican-controlled government.
That takes us to cities and towns. Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff now pay their employees at least $15 an hour, which is good but not enough.
City leaders should follow Biden’s lead and require $15 per hour for city contractors.
Phoenix, for instance, has an equal opportunity and pay requirement that bans city contractors from discriminating against employees because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability.
But there is no mandate on specific pay, other than the state’s minimum hourly wage. It’s time to change that.
The question is whether local leaders have the guts to fight for workers – the people who toil on everything from cleaning and maintenance – or whether they’ll remain aloof, cementing personal power like Sinema.